You are an environmental engineer for one of the many local plants. That plant dischargeseffluents into a lake in a flourishing tourist area. Although all the plants are marginallyprofitable, they compete for the same customers. Your responsibilities are to monitor thewater and air discharges at your plant and the periodic reporting to Dept. of Anti-pollution.You have just prepared a report that indicates that the level of pollution in the Plant’s waterdischarges slightly exceed the legal limits. Your supervisor says you should regard the excessas a mere ‘technicality’, and he asks you to ‘adjust’ the data so that the data appears to be incompliance. He says that slight excess is not going to endanger human or fish life any morethan if the plant were actually in compliance. However he says, solving the problem wouldrequire a very heavy investment. He explains, “We can not afford new equipment. It mightcost even a few jobs. It will set us behind our competitors. Besides, he says that many of thecompetitors are doing the same and the bad publicity we would get might scare off some ofthe tourist industry, making it worse for everybody” A. What are your basic responsibilities as an environmental engineer in this plant? Howshould you respond to your supervisor’s requests? B. What should you do, from “all things considered” perspective as environmental engineer?
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1. You are an environmental engineer for one of the many local plants. That plant dischargeseffluents into a lake in a flourishing tourist area. Although all the plants are marginallyprofitable, they compete for the same customers. Your responsibilities are to monitor thewater and air discharges at your plant and the periodic reporting to Dept. of Anti-pollution.You have just prepared a report that indicates that the level of pollution in the Plant’s waterdischarges slightly exceed the legal limits. Your supervisor says you should regard the excessas a mere ‘technicality’, and he asks you to ‘adjust’ the data so that the data appears to be incompliance. He says that slight excess is not going to endanger human or fish life any morethan if the plant were actually in compliance. However he says, solving the problem wouldrequire a very heavy investment. He explains, “We can not afford new equipment. It mightcost even a few jobs. It will set us behind our competitors. Besides, he says that many of thecompetitors are doing the same and the bad publicity we would get might scare off some ofthe tourist industry, making it worse for everybody”
A. What are your basic responsibilities as an environmental engineer in this plant? Howshould you respond to your supervisor’s requests?
B. What should you do, from “all things considered” perspective as environmental engineer?
2. Jack Strong is seated between Tom Evans and Judy Hanson at a dinner meeting of a localindustrial engineering society. Jack and Judy have an extended discussion of a variety ofconcerns, many of which are related to their common engineering interests. At the conclusionof the dinner, Jack turns to Tom, smiles, and says, ‘‘I’m sorry not to have talked with you moretonight, Tom, but Judy’s better looking than you.’’Judy is taken aback by Jack’s comment. A recent graduate from a school in which more than20 percent of her classmates were women, she had been led to believe that finally thestereotypical view that women are not as well suited for engineering as men was finally goingaway. However, her first job has raised some doubts about this. She was hired into a divisionin which she is the only woman engineer. Now, even after nearly 1 year on the job, she has tostruggle to get others to take her ideas seriously. She wants to be recognized first andforemost as a good engineer. So, she had enjoyed ‘‘talking shop’’ with Jack. But she wasstunned by his remark to Tom, however innocently it might have been intended. Suddenly,she saw the conversation in a very different light. Once again, she sensed that she was notbeing taken seriously enough as an engineer.
How should Judy respond to Jack’s remark? Should she say anything? Assuming Tomunderstands her perspective, what, if anything, should he say or do?
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